The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of poverty on Pennsylvania Value-Added Asssessment Scores (PVAAS) in mathematics, reading, and science. Due to the perceived under-performance of public schools in the United States of America, many reform efforts have been enacted. One such effort was the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2002, which held school districts and individual schools accountable for student performance as measured by arbitrary achievement goals on state mandated...
Donald Warren Wagner.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Marcoline, Joseph Committee members: Cathy Kaufman; Sue Rieg.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This dissertation focuses on how racial passing can be a critical strategy for defining and validating a nuanced conceptualization of blackness in twenty-first century African-American Literature. Specifically in the works of Sapphire, Danzy Senna, and Colson Whitehead, the historical moment of passing yet endures into the future. Scholars have thoroughly analyzed racial passing in African American literature according to a standard definition of narratives written primarily in the early twen...
Pamela S Richardson.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Watson, Veronica Committee members: Mike Sell; Lingyan Yang.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This dissertation will propose an alternative method of literary criticism to the prevailing form of economic interaction with literature, namely anti-capitalist literary criticism. Economic criticism implies any form of literary criticism in which economic principles are addressed and elucidated and, additionally, seeks a correlation of economic processes with the creation, dissemination, and reception of literature. In contrast to the tenets of economic collectivism and social determinism t...
Matthew D Spivey.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Kuipers, Christopher Committee members: Stephen Cox; David Downing; Mike Sell.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

I argue that a number of novels are not appreciated for their radical critiques of Western ideologies. I critique the way that society often compels individuals into conformity. Conformity, these novels show, represses the more authentic and organic feelings, desires, and behaviors that could allow for individuals to experience greater self-fulfillment. The rebellious canon-represented here particularly in novels by Roth, Lawrence, Hardy, Ellison, and Emily Bronte and (more briefly) a few oth...
Andru Lugo.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Thompson, Todd Committee members: Jim Cahalan; David Downing; Tanya Heflin.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

The reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; 2004) fundamentally permitted a response to intervention (RTI) process for identifying students with specific learning disabilities (SLD) after decades of problematic criteria with the ability-achievement discrepancy model. Monitoring student progress to determine rate of improvement (ROI) is an important component of RTI (Fuchs & Fuchs, 1998; Gresham, 2001; Kovaleski et al., 2013) and while abundant in the literatu...
Caitlin S Flinn.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Kovaleski, Joseph F. Committee members: David Lillenstein; Courtney McLaughlin; Mark Staszkiewicz.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This project offers an examination of composition studies through the vantage point of Chinese scholars between 1987 and 2014. Some of the historical issues that these scholars have identified through personal anecdote and empirical research include, but are not limited to, the idea that home and school practices are separate and should not intersect or interfere with one another; the belief that there are absolute meanings to be found in words translated from one language to another; and the...
Rachel Griffo.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Hurlbert, Claude M. Committee members: Sharon Deckert; Curtis Porter.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

The purpose of this dissertation is to recover the agency (in some cases, identities) of editors by examining their roles in the careers of three nineteenth-century canonical authors: Henry David Thoreau, Sara Payson Willis (Fanny Fern), and Walt Whitman. In the study, I argue that critics and literary historians often have ignored the agency of editors, their several roles in bringing canonical works to print, and the possibility of their influence on the authors themselves. The result has b...
David W Johnson.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Thompson, Todd N. Committee members: Christopher Orchard; Thomas Slater.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

Charter schools have been developed and established for decades. With nearly 6,000 charter schools across the United States and more than 550 in Pennsylvania alone, hundreds-of-thousands of students are attending public charter schools from preschool through high school graduation. Over the past several years the Pennsylvania Department of Education, and states across the country, have continued to modify the process for applying, establishing, and renewing charter schools. This study descri...
Colleen L Freyvogel.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Rotigel, Jennifer Committee members: George Bieger; Cathy Kaufman.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This qualitative participatory action research (PAR) dissertation positioned within a critical race theoretical (CRT) framework examines testimonios of five adults living in North Carolina from various countries,cultures, linguistic, and religious backgrounds who live or have lived undocumented in the United States. It chronicles a social justice study where a researcher-advocate in collaboration with various North Carolina community stakeholders create and implement strategies that work towa...
Leslie Nicole Gutierrez.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Deckert, Sharon K. Committee members: Gloria Park; Marjorie Zambrano-Paff.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

This study examines the narratives of writing center peer tutors and the writers with whom they work, investigating the ways in which their stories coincide with, contradict, and reimagine the dominant narratives of peer tutoring. Drawing from Grimm's (2002) theory of the "transitional space" of the tutorial and McKinney's (2013) conception of the "grand narrative" of writing center work, this study aims to reposition the conversation about the interaction between tutors and writers, illustr...
Margaret M Herb.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Rafoth, Bennett A. Committee members: Sharon Deckert; Nicole Munday.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

Information is lacking on parenting style and parental involvement as it relates to undergraduate college students. Using a quantitative methodology, this study surveyed 470 undergraduate students at a public 4-year university to investigate the relationship among parenting style, parental involvement and parent influence and undergraduate student success, as measured by Schreiner's Thriving Quotient (2009). This study disaggregated the dimensions of Baumrind's authoritative parenting (196...
Susan Miller Donat.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Anderson, John A. Committee members: J. Mabry; Melissa Swauger.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

The purpose of this study was to examine the constructs of creativity, curiosity, and academic intrinsic motivation as they related to sixth grade students. These variables were examined independent of achievement scores in order to focus on the ways in which creativity and curiosity related to the participants' academic intrinsic motivation. In today's educational climate, there are students who are disengaged in learning because of the use of standardized, high-stakes assessment. This disen...
Jennifer L Rinkevich.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Rieg, Sue A. Committee members: George Bieger; Kelli Paquette.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This quantitative study examined the variables of the formative reading assessments Classroom Diagnostic Tools and STAR to determine the predictive value each had on the Pennsylvania System of School Assessment with an added determinate of whether the combined use of the CDT and STAR assessments yielded an additional benefit. The Shingo System for Continuous Improvement, a business theory of fundamental improvement used with thousands of workers, managers, and top executives at hundreds of c...
Ruth Yatzkanic.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Rotigel, Jennifer V. Committee members: George Bieger; DeAnna Laverick.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

John Gottman popularized the role that negative communication patterns can have in romantic relationships (Gottman, 2001). More specifically, the presence of his "Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse" has been found to predict relationship satisfaction and divorce in couples (Gottman, 1999). The "Four Horsemen" refer to criticism, defensiveness, contempt, and stonewalling. Gottman (1999) suggests that certain skills like mindfulness can be used to enhance communication and guard against the Four ...
Michael Lute.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Hatfield, Derek Committee members: Laura Knight; David Myers.
Psy.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

With public higher education currently facing monumental challenges, organizational communication is taking on greater significance in the context of campus climate and organizational effectiveness. Studying the relationship between organizational communication and campus climate could prove to be a valuable indicator of a university's "organizational effectiveness." Without effective organizational communication, employee morale can wane, commitment to the institution can be thwarted, and em...
Kelly Lynch McKenzie.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: McClanahan, Andrea; Helterbran, Valeri R. Committee members: Douglas Lare; Faith Waters.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

Susan Warner, author of the bestselling novel The Wide, Wide World (1850), was among the first writers to be recovered by scholars dedicated to restoring to print the work of forgotten women authors. Yet although it has been over two decades since The Wide, Wide World was first reprinted, Susan Warner has still only been recovered in part. Though she composed over thirty novels in her lifetime, produced a children's magazine co-authored with her sister, and successfully negotiated the male-do...
Amanda M Benigni.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Thompson, Todd Committee members: Christopher Kuipers; Veronica Watson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

This dissertation studies mutual legacies under the context of heterogeneity of Southeast Asian American and diasporic literature, including rice culture, Buddhism, wars, and diaspora, all of which play a significant role in configuring Southeast Asians' lives, identities, societies, and ontology in both their home countries and the new world. The selected authors employ writing as a means to assert their identity and connect their old world with the new world. Their literature also transplan...
Kittiphong Praphan.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Yang, Lingyan Committee members: Todd Thompson; Michael Williamson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

This study identified the family, education, religious, and socio-political influences of Rosa Parks that shaped her leadership prior to her refusal to move from her seat on the bus on December 1, 1955. Women of color living in the Black belt of America faced the risk of sexual violence, health care disparities, and poverty from the time of slavery and throughout the Jim Crow years. Yet, they did not give up, rather they employed these challenges to drive their activism, and empower them to s...
Susan E Sitter.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Kaufman, Cathy C. Committee members: Kelli Paquette; Jennifer Rotigel.
D.Ed. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

Research on prison and jail reentry related barriers typically addresses employment, housing, mental health, and substance abuse issues associated with returning prison inmates. Historically, these challenges are discussed from the perspective of offenders returning to urban areas. This dissertation explored challenges inmates experience leaving jail and returning to rural areas. Utilizing a mixed-method approach, this study examined the challenges associated with rural jail reentry perceived...
Kyle C Ward.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Merlo, Alida V. Committee members: W. Austin; Jonathon Cooper; Erika Frenzel.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

Over the past 10 years, Simulation-Based Learning (SBL) has developed as a viable strategy to prepare students for clinical reasoning; however, very little is known about the specific components of the SBL experience and how they affect student learning. Currently, there is a gap in the simulation literature regarding prebriefing strategies. Developing strategies for prebriefing may help nurse educators foster the development of clinical reasoning of prelicensure students during SBL. The p...
Donna S McDermott.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Shellebarger, Teresa C. Committee members: Kristy Chunta; Christoph Maier.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

This narrative dissertation looks at students' writing, and discusses how, after 15 years of teaching, a first year composition teacher felt compelled to change her pedagogy. Having recently lost her nephew to murder and concerned about the anti-social climate in her home, Bermuda, the researcher implemented a pedagogy intended to encourage students' voices and a sense of hope. The researcher's student-centered pedagogy required students to write books about `what they were burning to tell ...
Sharon M Virgil.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Hurlbert, Claude M. Committee members: Gian Pagnucci; Gloria Park.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

This dissertation explores the ways to teach the literary works of William Clark Falkner and William Faulkner to ESL (English as a Second Language) students in today's digital environment. William Faulkner's great-grandfather, William Clark Falkner, wrote romantic literary works, and William Faulkner critically uses the motifs of his great-grandfather's works to establish his literary world. Applying Bakhtin's dialogical theory, this study explores how these two authors imagine the social for...
Koichi Fujino.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Sherwood, Kenneth Committee members: Tanya Heflin; Todd Thompson.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English

This study aims to extend the current research on secondary gain among chronic pain patients. Previous research identified the concept of secondary gain having evolved from Freudian neurosis and an unfair association with malingering. Current research recognizes a more complete construct that includes secondary gains and losses as well as the gains and losses from tertiary levels. These levels of gains and loss create an overall economy that is theorized to have an effect on the treatment out...
Richard D Kutz Jr.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Roehrich, Laurie Committee members: Mark McGowan; Maureen McHugh.
Psy.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2014.
English

This study examines biases against the use of Nigerian Pidgin English in social settings. It also compares the usage between those who speak the preferred Standard English versus those who speak the Nonstandard English, Nigerian Pidgin English by analyzing the conversations between the two parental couples in the "Nollywood" film Wise In-Laws. Also, this study examines the subtle conversational structures that prevent or enable Nigerian Pidgin English speakers from being successful or unsuc...
Olubukola Yetunde Salako.
Publisher info.: Dissertation/Thesis.
Advisors: Savova, Lilia P. Committee members: Gian Pagnucci; Thomas Slater.
Ph.D. Indiana University of Pennsylvania 2015.
English